Tigerville, S.C.—Matthew McManaway continued his solid freshmen campaign, dishing out 17 kills with six digs and an ace at the service line as the Crusaders fell 3-1 to the Lions of Emmanuel College Tuesday night in Hayes Gymnasium.

The Crusaders struggled on offensive hitting at just a .207 clip, while committing 23 errors with 47 kills. The Crusaders fell behind early as the Lions took a 25-15 set one win.

The Crusaders would quickly find themselves in a deeper hole after the Lions squeezed out a 27-25 win in the second set. NGU would control the match late in the frame but the Lions stormed back to even the score at 24-24 after facing match point. Emmanuel would score three of the next four points to extend their lead to 2-0.

The Crusaders would finally find their way to the win column after putting together their best set of the night. NGU put down 15 kills on 32 attempts in the third set with just three errors and would trail after gaining the lead at 4-3 early in the set. The Crusaders would go on to take the game 25-18, extending the match at least one set.

North Greenville would put forth a valliant effort in the fourt set, but the Lions would come out on top. NGU would never lead and trailed by as many as many as five but would work back into contention after tying the score at 15-15. The Crusaders would score just three more points in the set however as the Lions would cruise to the 25-18 win.

North Greenville fell to 8-13 overall on the season and 2-9 in Conference Carolinas play after the loss to Emmanuel. Dustin King would lead the team on defense with 15 kills while Carlos Suarez led NGU with 31 assists. Connor Rhine also had 10 digs. The Crusaders had four aces spread out over four players.

NGU will travel Bristol, Tennessee tomorrow to take on the King Tornado in a 7pm Conference Carolinas showdown.